PRWeek UK Awards Winners 2016: Most Innovative Use of Digital & Social Media

The digital reach of the 'Missing Type' campaign by MHP Communications/Engine for NHS Blood and Transplant was just one example of its overall excellence. The award is sponsored by Hannover Communications.

This barnstorming campaign is widely – and rightly – regarded as among the most inventive and creative of its time.

With the number of new blood donors coming forward plummeting 40 per cent in the past decade, NHS Blood and Transplant’s challenge was to recruit new ones, particularly young adults.

To do this, 1,000 organisations and companies agreed to remove the letters A, O and B from their signage and branding to bring attention to the ‘missing types’ of donated blood. Highlights included the ‘o’ disappearing from the Downing Street sign. Other participants included Google, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, O2 and The Church of England.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people were encouraged to take the letters from their names on their social-media accounts.

A record 30,000 people registered as new blood donors in the first 10 days of the campaign alone, which is equivalent to 100,000 lives saved or improved.

‘Missing Type’ won a Health & Wellness Lion at the Cannes Festival this year and, in August, it was relaunched by blood services in 21 countries. It’s a testament to the strength of the idea and the power of the execution.

Judges’ comment

Wow! Sometimes a campaign is so brilliant it blows your mind. And, as so often, simplicity is the key. Hard not to be impressed and humbled by the genius of those who created it